Dwight Howard will spend his offseason rededicating himself to basketball and the Lakers and the NBA because, god, what was he doing this yearplaying “Cold Turkey” in Relativity and Reel FX’s Free Birds!

Namedrop time!

He plays Cold Turkey, one of the Wild Turkeys that Jake (voiced by Woody Harrelson) and Reggie (voiced by Owen Wilson) meet when they travel back in time to try and get turkeys off the Thanksgiving Day menu. Amy Poehler, George Takei, Dan Fogler, Colm Meaney, Eddie ‘Piolin’ Sotelo, Danny Carey, Josh Lawson and Keith David also lend their voices to the film. Howard has a relationship to the label as he is represented by Relativity Sports. The Jimmy Hayward-directed film opens November 1. Scott Mosier, Craig Mazin, John Strauss and David l. Stern produce from a script by Stern and Strauss. Mazin did a rewrite.

D12 is also in this Relativity Sports short film, with Dez, Crabtree and Marion. Marion steals the show at 1:28 (but the whole video is worth a view, if not a few).

One serious wrinkle: Dwight Howard is a free agent. He clearly likes being in Los Angeles. The Lakers suck, but his love of being on camera can’t hurt their chances…

(Oh, yeah. I think I’m supposed to make the following joke, as a snarky bloggerer. Maybe if Dwight Howard didn’t spend so much time acting, he’d be able to make a darn free throw!)